05-08-2012, 11:00 AM

Hi,

As with many others this is my first post. I have looked at many of the other posts with similarly titled subjects but felt it best not to highjack someone else's issue.

I live in the UK in a very old (1601) building where the walls are solid stone and very thick. My existing wireless router could not penetrate the walls to i upgraded to a BELKIN 802.11 n router but this did not help. I then purchased my first iMac and decided to upgrade to a Airport Extreme (hoping this may help). I did not realise that the Extreme still required connection to a DSL router/modem so i still needed the BELKIN router. Suffice to say the wireless network was not better. Back to APPLE to look at the Airport Express. It states that this will extend a wireless network however despite following all the instructions my express does not appear to extend the network one iota. What have i missed please?

Setup is as follows:

BELKIN DSL router connect by ethernet to Airport Extreme.

BELKIN wireless is OFF.

Extreme setup is:

Status: Normal
Version: 7.6.1
Wireless Mode: Create a wireless network
Wireless Network Name: OCH_Network
Channel: 100 (automatic), 6 (automatic)
Wireless clients: 4
Connect using: ethernet
IP address: 192.168.1.4

Express setup is:

Status: Normal
Version: 7.6.1
Wireless Mode: Extend a wireless network
Wireless Network Name: OCH_Network
Channel: 100 (automatic)
Wireless clients: 2
Connect using: wireless network
IP address: 192.168.1.9

The room in which the express is still has a very poor wireless signal. I am not a complete novice when setting up home networks but this has me stumped. All help gratefully received.

05-08-2012, 11:05 AM

Not an expert on Networks, but did you follow the instruction for setting up a WDS? (will try to find them and post back here)

Here is a somewhat dated article from Apple, but it appears to still be valid
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262

One note, where it says Airport ID, this is the MAC address on the sticker on the base of your wireless routers.

EDIT: Obviously the Airport Express has to have some signal available to it to extend. Depending on the construction and layout of your house you may have to look at hardwire solutions.
I have never tried the units that use your household wiring for data transmission, but may be an option

05-08-2012, 11:30 AM

Hi RazorMac,

I have indeed tried the power line adaptors but the house is so old the electricity is not a single ring mains and so these do not work. I have looked at the WDS instructions but got stuck at the part about Apple ID. I will look again following a read of the article you included.

Thanks,

05-08-2012, 12:04 PM

I recommended the WDS route because for whatever reason doing the straight extend didn't work well for me.

Any possibility of pulling CAT 5 through your household wiring channels?

05-08-2012, 03:01 PM

Hi Razormac, No ethernet is not an option - remember the very thick walls. I'll have another go at the WDS solution and see where that takes me.

05-08-2012, 05:12 PM

The way you have setup the express is correct but as Razormac noted you need a signal to extend. If cabling and powerline are out then it has to be wireless

For the express to work as a repeater it has to have a good signal to repeat. It maybe you need more than one depending on signal quality and where it has to reach.

05-09-2012, 03:37 AM

Morning MrPlow, Is there an easy way to determine which device, extreme or express, i am connected to? If i start in the front room and head to the kitchen i can stand next to the express with 5 bars - which would suggest it is getting a good signal. if i move further into the kitchen the signal drops quickly to one or two bars. On checking using airport, the extreme and express show numbers of devices connected but only by mac address.

05-09-2012, 03:43 AM

You can find out the MAC address of your MacBook wireless card by going to System Preferences - Network - Select Airport from the left panel - Advanced - Airport Tab

Once you know the MAC address you can use Airport Utility to see MAC addresses of connected devices and see which you are connected to.

05-10-2012, 03:46 AM

ADDITIONAL QUESTION.

Even if the signal is poor. surely the purpose of the Express is to regenerate the signal not just produce what it is getting!! or am i missing something?

05-10-2012, 03:51 AM

Garbage in garbage out

The Express isn't an amplifier the most it can do is re-broadcast the signal it's getting

The idea is that it just extends the range of your router.
eg. Over 10m the routers signal drops to nothing
At 5m it's at 50% - put the express at the 5m point and it will re-broadcast that 50% strength signal, potentially meaning you'll get 50% signal strength at 10m from the router

Obviously though, as you've witnessed it's very much a trial and error situation with wifi depending on many environmental factors.